About the African Food Network

Our Mission

To document, promote, and globalise African food culture.

Three verbs, in order. Document first, because nothing can be promoted that has not been recorded. Promote second, because a record nobody reads changes nothing. Globalise third, because the destination is the world's table, not a regional shelf.

Our Vision

A world where African food culture is fully documented, celebrated, and respected as one of the world's great culinary traditions.

The measure is parity. African food is not a category to be discovered. It is a body of tradition that belongs beside every other great cuisine, with the same depth of record and the same seriousness of treatment.

Our Values

Four words that decide what gets published, what gets funded, and what gets refused.

The Five Pillars

Everything the African Food Network builds sits under one of these five. There is no sixth.

1. 1

   Heritage Documentation

   Recording recipes, techniques and food stories with named attribution, so the knowledge survives the cook who carries it.
2. 2

   Media and Content

   Editorial, photography, video and documentary work that puts African food in front of an audience at broadcast quality.
3. 3

   Community

   The Africook network, members and contributors who supply, verify and defend the accuracy of the archive.
4. 4

   Events

   Festivals, summits, awards and food trails that move the work off the page and into public, physical space.
5. 5

   Industry Leadership

   Standards, partnerships and advocacy that lift the whole African food sector, not only the platform.

The Five Pillars are the complete public framework for describing AFN's work. Partners, press and sponsors are briefed against these five and nothing else.

Our Story

It started with a camera, a kitchen, and the suspicion that nobody was writing any of this down.

1. 2017

   Content creation begins

   Two years before the organisation had a name, the work was already running: recipes filmed, cooks interviewed and dishes photographed across Nigeria. The archive starts here.
2. 2019

   The African Food Network is founded

   AFN is formally established with headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, and a stated mission to document, promote and globalise African food culture.
3. 2024

   First World Culinary Award, and AFN 100 launches

   The African Food and Drink Festival is named Africa's Best Culinary Festival at the World Culinary Awards. AFN 100, the annual list recognising the people moving African food forward, publishes its first edition.
4. 2025

   Second World Culinary Award, AFSE Abuja, and the maiden AFIA

   A second consecutive World Culinary Award as Africa's Best Culinary Festival. The African Food Summit and Expo is delivered in Abuja, and the African Food Industry Awards run their maiden virtual edition.
5. 2026

   Platform rebuild, AFSE UK, and United by Food

   The AFN platform is rebuilt around the archive. The African Food Summit and Expo travels to London on 22 October 2026, positioned during Black History Month UK, where the documentary United by Food premieres.

United by Food

A feature documentary from the African Food Network, tracing the dishes, ingredients and cooking methods that cross African borders as if the borders were never drawn. Filmed with cooks, market traders and families across the continent, it makes the argument the archive makes in data: that African food is one shared inheritance held in many hands.

“Beyond borders and tribes, food reminds us that in Africa, we are one people, and we are united by food.”

Premieres 22 October 2026, London, at the African Food Summit and Expo UK. Press and screening enquiries go to summit@afrifoodnetwork.com.

Partners and Collaborators

AFN works with culture, tourism and industry bodies that carry the work further than a platform can carry it alone.

• African Tourism Board. Co-lead of the African Gastronomy and Tourism Forum.
• NCAC. National Council for Arts and Culture, Nigeria.
• CBAAC. Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation.
• CAPA. Continental association partner across the hospitality sector.
• Chefs in Africa. Professional chef network partner.
• Uziiza. Independent co-production partner for AFSE UK 2026.
• African Gastronomy and Tourism Forum. AGTF is co-led by the African Food Network and the African Tourism Board, bringing the food and tourism sectors into one conversation about how African cuisine travels, who profits from it, and how origin is protected.

Contact

Three routes in, so enquiries land with the right desk first time.

Work With Us